Word Origin & History

thieve O.E. þeofian, from þeof (see thief). Rare in O.E., not common until 17c. Thievish "of or pertaining to thieves" is recorded from mid-15c.; meaning "inclined to steal" is from 1530s. Thieving first attested 1520s. Thievery is from 1560s.

Example Sentences for thieving

Such incidents are not so surprising in a lucrative trade marred by thieving, swindling and espionage.

Others want to keep their money safe from expropriation by fickle governments, and hidden from thieving criminals.

If we're talking some dictator who is thieving from his people, the problem has nothing to do with taxation.

When thieving managers become investors, they prefer stability to anarchy.

No people's severance pay will be confiscated but that of thieving lib-lab politicians and their network and you know that.

The sooner they get of that thieving madman and his brood the better.

Thoughts of thieving are replaced by plans for revenge.

Better to move them all and leave their thieving, killing members to themselves and their pirate ships.

She is the former head of two regimes that were both dissolved amid allegations of huge thieving.